Obama’s High Noon

Recent events indicate that President Barack Obama is considering cutting the Pentagon's "long war" short. First came his decision to drop the Bush administration policy of demanding that Iran cede its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes as a...

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Polish Missile Joke Revisited

This Polish missile-defense system walks into a bar at noon and says, "Give me six shots of vodka." "How can you afford to get drunk in the middle of a business day?" the bartender asks. "Easy," the Polish missile-defense system replies....

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Obama Confronts Democratic Skepticism About Afghanistan

Growing skepticism among key Democratic lawmakers about the U.S. commitment to the war in Afghanistan is certain to pose one of the most difficult political challenges faced by President Barack Obama in his first year in office. With the military apparently preparing...

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Will Obama Veto Pork, or Enable It?

On Aug. 17 at the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Phoenix, President Barack Obama gave waste and pork in the defense budget a thorough tongue-lashing. It was well said, but also a little pathetic if you consider what the porkers in Congress are up to. The words flew high:...

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What Price Afghanistan?

Has the U.S. lost the Afghan war, even before President Obama's "surge" is plugged in and the "COIN" strategy is put in place? "Clear, hold, and build": – that's the "new" counterinsurgency doctrine [.pdf] being touted by the...

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Measuring a War Gone to Hell

Here may be the single strangest fact of our American world: that at least three administrations – Ronald Reagan's, George W. Bush's, and now Barack Obama's – drew the U.S. "defense" perimeter at the Hindu Kush; that is, in the rugged, mountainous lands of...

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To Escalate the Escalation?

The debate rages among experts on whether to escalate the escalation of Barack Obama's "war of necessity" in Afghanistan – seemingly oblivious to American public opinion at home that has turned against waging the conflict at all. During even the best of...

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The General Who Would Be King

Forgive the smug self-congratulation, but you heard it here first, folks. I've been hinting since February that "King David" Petraeus, the "genius" of the surge in Iraq who is now in charge of all our woebegone Middle East wars as head of Central...

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